Don't hog the spotlight!
by Mimi Tsukiyomi7567
Summary: Eren, Armin, Mikasa, and Jean are in a locally famous band and it's their first Christmas concert. Jean has written an original song, a duet for Mikasa and himself. But Eren, the lead singer, doesn't like that idea at all. Oneshot. One-sided Jean x Mikasa.


**Merry late Christmas and Happy New Year! This story is a late Christmas present for my dad (cuz he's awesome like that). This is a modern band AU that I'd been working on for a while but never did anything with, and my dad is in a band so I thought it would be cool to use it for him. This is my first Shingeki no Kyojin oneshot, so sorry if the characters get OOC.**

**There's no official pairing in this, just onesided Jean x Mikasa.**

**Also, I'd like to thank my mom and my friend Cartor for helping me with ideas.**

**Anyways, enough rambling, on to the story!**

_**Summary: Eren, Armin, Mikasa, and Jean are in a locally famous band and it's their first Christmas concert. Jean has written an original song, a duet for Mikasa and himself. But Eren, the lead singer, doesn't like that idea at all.**_

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><p>Eren Jaeger and Armin Arlert have been best friends since Eren saved Armin from bullies in the third grade. Eren's parents adopted Mikasa Ackerman about a year later. The three of them have been inseperable ever since.<p>

They were in the seventh grade when they met Jean Kirschtein. Seventh grade. What an awful, awkward year, being twelve years old and just starting puberty. Jean fell for Mikasa at first sight, though Mikasa didn't look twice at him. That's why when Eren, Armin, and Mikasa started a band in their sophomore year of high school, Jean decided to join, too. He learned to play the drums specifically to join the band Mikasa was in. Eren knew, but Jean turned out to be a pretty good drummer, and Armin and Mikasa thought so, too. Eren was outvoted.

Armin was probably the only one who was enthusiastic about Jean joining the band. Eren outright refused at first, and Mikasa was hesitant since she knew of Jean's feelings for her. But Armin was good at reasoning with his friends. Mikasa took Armin's side and Eren later reluctantly accepted Jean's joining their group. They called themselves _Jaeger Bomb_.

Eren was the one who came up with the band idea. He'd been playing guitar since the age of ten and wanted to one day go pro. When he told his two best friends about his dream, they wanted to be a part of it. Armin started to learn to play piano when he was six, so the transition to keyboard and synthesizer wasn't hard for him. Mikasa didn't have any prior bass teaching but she excelled in anything she put her mind to and picked it up quickly. It was later decided that Eren would be the lead singer. No one fought him for the position.

Throughout the next three years together, their group became locally and internet famous. They uploaded music videos (filmed by their friend Connie and directed by their manager and friend Marco) to YouTube, they played on local radio, and when they were old enough they were payed to play in bars and clubs. They even played on TV a couple times.

Now they were all eighteen (with the exception of nineteen year old Marco) and they were rehearsing for their first Christmas concert. The four of them were down in Eren's basement, where they always practiced.

Eren sang, leaned back in a chair with his guitar on his lap, waiting for Mikasa to hand him her song choice. _"Bingle jells, bingle jells, wingle all the jay...Oh fhat wun it is ro tide in a one Jean slopen eigh, HEY!"_

Jean growled at Eren's singing, mostly because of his admittedly good horse joke thrown in there. "What the hell are you doing, Jaeger?"

"Spoonerisms, look it up."

Mikasa fished through the folder of Christmas concert song options and handed him the lyrics sheet for her choice. Eren put his guitar back on its stand and took the papers from her. Ironically it was a version of Jingle Bells. But there was a small problem.

"Mikasa, the concert is in a week, I can't learn a Japanese song before then."

Eren learned some Japanese for Mikasa when they first adopted her, and he did sing some Japanese songs she liked with her. But it usually took longer than a week to be able to know the song well enough to sing it without looking at the words. And they usually played them just for fun, not at concerts, because no one would know what they were saying.

"Yes you can, I'll help you."

"We've never done a song in another language at a concert."

"Eren, everyone knows the words to Jingle Bells. Even if you sing it in Japanese, they'll know what you're saying. Everyone sings Jingle Bells for Christmas, but how many sing it in a foreign language? We'll be remembered for it," Armin tried to reason. "It's different."

"Yeah, but..."

"What, you can't do it, Jaeger?"

Eren's eye twitched at the sound of Jean's voice.

"Because if you can't, I will."

Eren turned to Jean with a scowl on his face. "I'm sorry, are you the lead singer of this band? Are you the Jaeger in _Jaeger Bomb_? I can do it just fine myself."

"Great, we'll get started right now," Mikasa said, getting the lyrics out of a song folder.

Armin sighed. "You've been played, Eren."

"I have not! I would've done it without his help."

Mikasa looked confusedly at their folder containing possible song choices. "Eren? What's this?"

"What?" Eren took the sheets of paper she handed him. He looked over the song sheet, his brows furrowing in confusion as well. "I didn't write this."

"I did."

The three other members of the band looked up at Jean.

"What?"

"I wrote it," Jean clarified.

"Oh, you wrote a song?" Eren said it with a voice that suggested he was talking to a child, and it pissed Jean off. "Well that's nice, we'll put it on the fridge for everyone to see."

This was what Marco walked in on. "Hey guys, how's it go- Jean, no!" Seeing the angry look on Jean's face and the smirk on Eren's, Marco quickly stepped in between them in fear of a fight starting. "What is it this time?"

The two of them had gotten into countless fights over the years, it was a wonder they hadn't killed each other yet.

"I wrote a song for the band and Jaeger here is treating me like a kid with a crappy drawing!"

"Did you even give it a chance, Eren?"

"Why should I?"

Armin spoke up this time. "Because a good band leader listens to his band mates' ideas."

Eren hesitated for a minute before looking back to the song sheet. "This is a duet."

"Yeah. It's for me to sing."

Eren couldn't help but laugh at the thought. "These notes seem a little high pitched for you, don't you think?"

"That's the female part, jackass. It's a duet for me and Mikasa."

Suddenly Eren didn't find it so funny anymore. Mikasa had a lovely voice but she never showed any interest in singing for the group. As for Jean, no one in the group had ever heard him sing. He never showed an interest, and when Eren made himself the lead singer, Jean didn't protest. He never led on that he might want to sing something.

"What's with your sudden interest in singing and songwriting?" He had an idea, but he wanted to hear Jean say it.

"I'm tired of you hogging the spotlight. You're growing a big head, bigger than usual."

"Hey, if you wanted to be the singer, you should have said something three years ago."

"Well I didn't want to be the singer three years ago. What, you can't give up the mic for one song?"

"Shut up, you know that's not the issue!" Now that Eren was raising his voice it would only escalate from there. Once one of them started yelling, it eventually led to fists flying. "You're just trying to hook up with my sister!"

"Eren, please, that's ridiculous," said Mikasa, trying to stop the fight before it started. "That was six years ago, I'm sure he's over that."

"..." When Jean didn't say anything, instead glancing away from everyone with a light blush on his cheeks, it became clear that he was not over it.

"Just stick to drumming. Okay, Ringo?"

"Oh no," muttered Armin.

Marco backed away from the two bickering members. "Did he just-"

"Yes, he did."

Jean glared at Eren. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know what it means. You're the Ringo Starr of this group."

Marco and Armin stared at the two of them worriedly, but Mikasa just seemed confused. "What's so bad about Ringo Starr? He was a great drummer."

"Yeah, but like Ringo Starr, Jean should just stick to drumming instead of singing and songwriting."

"Ringo was a great songwriter!" Jean defended.

"Well of course _you_ would think that!"

"If you think I'm the Ringo Starr, then maybe I'll just take my drums and go!"

"Good luck getting them out of here by yourself!"

Jean stormed up the stairs out of the basement. Eren felt that was one of those moments where they both should have left, but there was only one way out and he didn't want to go up the stairs after Jean. So now he had to stand there in the middle of the awkward silence that settled after Jean's departure.

Unable to stay in the silence, Marco went up after Jean, leaving Armin and Mikasa to deal with Eren. Jean and Eren had fought many times before, but this was the first time Jean threatened to quit the band.

Armin was already preparing what he was going to say to Eren to get them to make up, but Eren spoke up before he could say anything.

"We should start practicing that Jingle Bells song," he said before going back to his guitar stand.

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><p><em>"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way! Ky<em>_ō wa tanoshī kurisumasu__."_

Eren, Armin, and Mikasa continued to rehearse without Jean. Eren sang into the microphone, looking at the lyrics sheet on the music stand.

_"Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way! Hayaku kite kure osh__ōgatsu__."_

Eren was picking up the words well, but the song just didn't sound right without the drums. Armin stopped playing, the silence on his part causing Mikasa and Eren to stop also and look at him.

"What's wrong, Armin?"

Armin just cut to the chase. "We need Jean."

"No."

"Eren! Don't you think you're being a little childish? Were you absent in kindergarten the day they taught us to share and treat others the way we want to be treated?"

"God, you sound like my mother!" Eren knew he was being a little ridiculous. Looking back on it, it was a pretty stupid fight. It's not like Jean wanted his position permanently, he just wanted one song. But that wasn't the only issue, he didn't want a horseface like Jean with his sister.

Even though Mikasa didn't like Jean that way, he didn't give up. And Jean knew she didn't like him. He thought that maybe she would fall for him once she heard him sing. The whole thing was like a cheesy musical in his head. He'd sing to her for the first time, she'd fall in love with him and sing a duet with him, and they'd live happily ever after.

"Come on, can't you just talk to him? Talk, not fight."

"Are you sure that's possible, Armin?"

"Mikasa..." Eren whined. "Fine! I'll talk to him. Though I gotta warn you, I'm not a very good horse whisperer."

Armin couldn't help but facepalm. If Eren kept up like this, their talk _would_ turn into a fight.

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><p>Jean had already gone home, even after Marco tried to talk him into going back. When he heard a knock on his front door, he assumed it was Marco again, or maybe even Armin. He didn't expect to see Eren standing at his doorstep.<p>

"What do you want? Come to rub in my face how my attempts are useless?"

"No, now shut up before you make me change my mind about apologizing."

Jean narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the shorter male. Eren wouldn't come apologize on his own, Armin and Mikasa must have convinced him. "Well?" Jean pushed for him to continue.

Eren repressed a small growl. "I'm sorry I didn't give your song a chance. Armin was right, as always, a good band leader should listen to his band mates' ideas. I am willing to compromise. I'll listen to your song, but you can not duet with Mikasa. As long as it's not a love song, you can duet with me or you can change it so it's not a duet and sing it yourself. And if the other's think it's good, you can sing it at the Christmas concert. The songs don't sound right without your drums. Please come back." Eren bit the last part out.

Jean shouldn't help but smirk. "Are you begging me, Jaeger?"

"Hell no I'm not."

"Because I might consider coming back if you beg."

"Screw you, either come back or don't, I don't care. I came and apologized, that's all I had to do. If you don't come back, we can just find another drummer."

Jean thought a moment. "You'll listen to my song?"

"Yes."

"And let me sing it at the concert?"

"If it's good."

Even if he ended up singing alone instead of with Mikasa, he still had the dream that she would like his song. "Alright, fine. But prepare to be blown away."

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><p><strong>I probably would have made this a little longer, but I felt bad I was getting it in so late after Christmas. So there it is! My first SNK oneshot! I hope you guys enjoyed it, I might write another SNK story sometime.<strong>

**Review!**


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